Currently, there are numerous systems for adding chemical to a preexisting solution system, which, in turn, is sprayed by a mobile sprayer over an agricultural field. The chemical addition and the solution are selected for particular application of herbicides, insecticides, and the like. With all such systems, it is important to precisely control the amount of solution and chemical only to those sections of the field desired. For this purpose, it is necessary, in existing systems, to manually prime the system. As used herein, the term “prime” does not necessarily refer to the operation of supplying liquid to the inlet of a pump so that it pumps liquid and not air or a mixture of air and liquid. It primarily refers to filling the lines from the respective pumps to the mixer and/or nozzles carried by the agricultural spraying unit.
In current systems, operators rely on experience with the system and/or visual coloring of the chemical to determine when the system is fully primed. When the chemical has no color, the operator must rely on a gut feeling and past experience to operate the pump for a long enough time to prime the line. In addition, the solution lines from the solution pump to the nozzles must be primed and this adds further uncertainty to the system. The uncertainty associated with this procedure creates the potential for wasted chemical, carrier fluid, wasted time, or inefficient application of chemical in the field due to incomplete system priming.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system that automatically primes the conduits so as to enable efficient spraying.